Peddleship (Ship)
Description The Peddleship is an experimental design that magically converts physical energy into spelljamming energy for limited periods. The ship resembles a small copper canoe, capable of seating 2 passengers, one in front of the other. Below each seat is a set of pedals. By pumping these pedals as hard as they can, the passengers can propel the Peddleship at tactical speeds. A minimum Str of 13 is required to operate the Peddleship, which would give the tiny craft SR 1. Each point of Str above 13 adds 1 to the SR, to a maximum SR 6. The Peddleship can operate with a single individual peddling, or if a second man is carried both can peddle. If two are peddling, add their Str scores together to determine their effective Str for purposes of SR. The passenger in the front seat controls the movement of the Peddleship, and if only one passenger is peddling, that person must be in the front. A passenger who is peddling can't cast spells, fire weapons, or take any other actions aside from speaking, since the pedals require a great deal of force and concentration to operate. If there are two passengers and only the front passenger is peddling, the second passenger is free to take any normal actions. A Pedalship can only operate for a maximum of one hour per week, although this can be broken down into several shorter periods over several days if desired. While the Peddleship is intended to serve many of the same functions as the common Flitter, it is unlikely to replace the Flitter even if the Imperial Elven Navy puts it into widespread production once its experimental period is completed. This is partly because the tiny Peddleship is too small to support any sort of helm capable of spelljamming speeds, thus making it more limited in function than a Flitter. Also, the Peddleship is much more limited in capacity compared to a Flitter, since it is only capable of carrying 2 passengers, while a Flitter could conceivably cram as many as 10 elves aboard for short journeys. In addition, a not insignificant factor from the elven point of view is the simple fact that the Peddleship is less aesthetically pleasing than the Flitter. Crew Since they are only usable for extremely short ranges, Peddleships do not typically have crews of their own, and are instead manned by crewmembers from the ship that carries them. While in operation, a Peddleship can carry only 1 or 2 crew. Ship Uses Scout: Peddleships are intended to be tiny short-range scout ships which can be carried by virtually any ship capable of independant operations without taking up any significant cargo space. The extremely limited range of the Peddleship means that it is generally only used for sending very small landing parties to investigate drifting ships, small planetoids, and similar objects encountered in space. Fighter: When parent vessels can spare enough crew in battle, Peddleships with a single passenger peddling and a second passenger with a bow or spells, may be used as light fighter craft. A strong enough individual peddling can propel a Peddleship at impressive speeds, and when used in numbers, these ships can be quite effective, despite the fact that they are very easily destroyed. Use of massed Peddleships in combat is extraordinarily rare, however, since most ships simply do not carry enough spare crew to operate more than a small number of the tiny craft. Escape Ship: A few Peddleships have been successfully used as escape ships when their parent ships have been destroyed. This is only possible when the parent vessel is lost very close to a habitable world or worldlet due to the extremely short range of the Peddleship. Despite this, the small size of the craft means that a ship could easily carry enough Peddleships to carry its entire crew to safety, and so the Imperial Elven Navy is seriously considering putting the Peddleship into increased production for just such a usage. Other Configurations Since the Peddleship is still in its experimental stages, there are no other configurations